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Greenville News article link to newspaper site - http://greenvilleonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artikkel?Dato=20051212&Kategori=ENT&Lopenr=512120323&Ref=AR
Upstate resident celebrates love of nature in latest CD
Crown of the Carolinas' was a seven-year project for Bobby HollidayPublished: Monday, December 12, 2005 - 7:03 am
By Mike Foley
STAFF WRITER
He doesn't come right out and say it, but Bobby Holliday channels a bit of Woody Guthrie -- "this land is your land, this land is my land" -- in his recently released CD, "Crown of the Carolinas." The 17-song CD chronicles Holliday's longstanding love of the South Carolina and North Carolina mountains and the special places they hold -- both literally and in our hearts. After a lifetime of being in the music business -- Holliday abandoned it in 1995 after working as a staff writer in Nashville, Tenn., for singer Ronnie Milsap's Milsap/Galbrath Publishing -- Holliday vowed he was done with the "business" aspect of music. "The best thing I could do for my music was to get out of the music business," he said. "I decided then, if I ever did anything else, it would be to write about things that I care about, things that I know about." That led to seven years of part-time work on the "Crown" CD, an atypically long time for someone used to writing songs quickly. "In Nashville, I'd sat in a cubicle for many years and cranked out songs," Holliday said. "Typically, you'd co-write with someone and hammer out a tune in a day, or a day and a half." Recording "Crown," Holliday said, was far different. It was a true labor of love. He'd write a song, record it quickly, and then let it sit for a month before listening to it again. Then he'd make changes with "perspective." That process meant a single song could take a year or two. It was worth it, said the Pickens resident, a 1968 Berea High School graduate who moved to Greenville County at age 11. Holliday graduated from North Greenville Junior College and Furman University and intermittently played in local bands including The Bojax, which had several regional hits. All the while, the Upstate's natural areas held a special allure to him, and writing about the mountains -- each of the 17 songs profiles a mountain, lake, valley or other natural phenomenon -- allowed him to celebrate the natural beauty of the area with music. In Holliday's song "Peaceful Eastatoe," about hiking a trail in Pickens County's Eastatoe Valley, the lyrics -- "Peaceful Eastatoe/My favorite place on Earth" -- tell of a place Holliday has loved since he was a child. Today, Holliday works in the health/nutrition industry and only pursues music as a sideline. He spends his free time hiking, biking or kayaking in the mountains he loves. Making the CD, he said, wasn't about an artist and friends producing yet another work; it was an attempt to "inspire, educate, arouse curiosity, as well as to entertain." |
